Grandma Gracie

 I've been inspired this past week to create beautiful things. I have been making rugs, pillows, breads, and beautiful designs. This is the most inspiring time of the year for me. Summer fades into fall and kicks off months of festivities. This time of year has always been significant to me. It is symbolized by pumpkins and sunflowers. It is a feeling of love emanating deep from within me. I remember the smells, the feelings and warmth of this year from when I was little, with my Grandma Gracie.

After the incident with my brother, when he was sent off to juvie, I lived with my Grandparents on my father's side. My mother's parents would have never taken us in. There was a stark difference between my Grandmothers that has played out in me in my design aesthetics. Grandma Gracie was my father's mother. She was married to Burt. He worked in the bathhouses downtown. Neither of my Grandmothers worked, they stayed home and tended to house. My mother worked all the time. It was at Grandma Gracies that I felt the most loved and safe.

Gracie and Burt lived on Cones Road, you turned by the ice cream shop. I remember more from that time than any other of my childhood. I was happy. I was safe. I was able to observe surroundings in love, and I took it all in. Gracie grew a garden, filled with giant sunflowers. Her kitchen opened into the garden where she went back and forth with cooking and laundry. A feeling that I have spent time exploring this past few months. I laid on her large woven oval rugs and soaked it all in. The rug had circular paths I would play "roads" on with my toys. Gracie's knees would pop sometimes, as she stood on her kitchen mat in her house shoes and house dress. The hem of her dress would sway as she moved about, floral patterns moving all around. The sunlight would stream through the garden into the back door and paint shadows over her and the kitchen.

The sunflowers swayed in the light, the smell of chocolate gravy filling the air, and the sounds of pots clinging and water running serenaded Elvis, as he did Gracie. She loved Elvis. She cooked and cleaned, and danced around. Her pot holders had the sweetest little faces on them. Little doll faces with crocheted sunflower petals surrounding them. They seemed to sing along with her and Elvis. It was those moments that would become entangled into my soul, creating this connection to love. All wrapped up into this time of year for me.

I was in first grade, to the best of my recollection when I was at Burt and Gracie's home. My favorite childhood picture of myself is from that time. I was wearing my favorite shirt. It was textured shirt, filled with little villages. I used to lay my head on my arms and pretend I was traveling through the little villages within the textures. I was reminded of all this when I was looking at the school picture. I can trace my love of textures back to this very shirt. This has been my inspiration for creating recent invitation designs. I have filled my screen and mind with loads of textures and sunflower graphics. Connecting all those dots that create part of who I am.